- Chino Yang blasts San Francisco officials in rap track ‘San Francisco Our Home’
- Motivated by his own restaurant Kung Food being broken into seven times
- Backed down later with apology video but implied it was only to avoid threats
An Asian rapper who made a diss track blaming ‘incompetent city officials’ for San Francisco’s crime rate has made an apology – of sorts.
Chino Yang, 35, who grew up in the city, branded mayor London Breed a ‘clown’ and a ‘phony a** liberal’ in his latest track ‘San Francisco Our Home’.
The rapper said he was motivated to produce the song because he is ‘fed up with the crimes’ including his restaurant being broken into seven times.
Yang is well known in the Chinese-speaking world thanks to his appearance on The Rap of China (中国新说唱), and other TV shows.
‘Now London Breed you ain’t nothing but a clown / When we really needed you, you ain’t never been around,’ Yang rapped on the track.
Chinese American rapper Chino Yang slammed San Francisco Mayor London Breed in a new diss track where he brands her a ‘clown’ and ‘phony a** liberal’ due to her failure to get a grip on crime in the city
Under Mayor London Breed (pictured) robbery is up more than 14 per cent compared to the start of the year, with 2,645 reports
‘You done turn this great city into a zombie land/ They do all kind of dirts here they won’t try that in a small town,’ he added, in an apparent reference to the rampant drug use across the city.
But on Tuesday night he made a lengthy apology to ‘our beloved mayor’ for ‘spreading misinformation’ about her.
Yang and asked for his family to be left out of the furor and took ‘full responsibility [for] my actions.
‘Lately I have been receiving a lot of threats, especially from someone extremely powerful, someone who has the connection to presidents, senators… you know, the top elites,’ he said.
‘I am simply a civilian, so for the sake of my family and my loved ones, and my close friends I’d like to openly and publicly make an apology regarding my actions and what I say in the video.
‘I had no idea this extremely powerful individual had so much emotional attachment to London Breed.
‘With that being said, I’m sorry for my ignorance, I’m sorry for my foolishness and impulsiveness. I should have been more informed about what she had done for our city.’
Yang on Tuesday night he made a lengthy apology to ‘our beloved mayor’ for ‘spreading misinformation’ about her
Yang also clarified that his song and video were not aimed at the black community of San Francisco, just because Breed was black.
‘I am still standing firmly on my beliefs and opinions. The last thing I want to express is my love for the black and brown community, I grew up with all my black and brown folks… I got nothing but love for them, I ain’t never faking,’ he said.
Yang said he was always positive about black people to his Chinese friends and the song had nothing to do with ‘creating division’ between the two communities.
He didn’t entirely back down as he added a poll asking if politicians should be ‘held accountable for the decay and failing of the city’.
Yang recently suffered a heart attack and said as a result he wasn’t up to dealing with the escalating fallout from his video.
Yang was earlier singing a different tune, staying defiant despite backlash from the mayor’s supporters and a rally planned by former mayor Willie Brown and local NAACP president Reverend Amos Brown.
‘I’m fed up with crime and incompetent city officials, so if they don’t care about us, it is up to us to take a stand and exercise our constitutional rights,’ he said in one video.
He showed a handwritten sign on the door of his restaurant Kung Food that told would-be burglars that there was no cash to steal.
‘We ain’t got no more money in the cash register. Those tablets ain’t worth much! Who’s got money under Joe’s economy, come on, partner!’ it read.
Yang was earlier singing a different tune, staying defiant despite backlash from the mayor’s supporters with follow up videos doubling down on his criticism
Yang showed a handwritten sign on the door of his restaurant Kung Food that told would-be burglars that there was no cash to steal
Yang wrote next to the video: ‘Make San Francisco Great Again! God Bless The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave! Fear not for I am with you!
‘There’s no shame to be a Christian, to be a father figure, to support the domestic economy!
‘It’s a shame that the most patriotic Americans ain’t even born here.’
Yang’s diss track referenced some of San Francisco’s most prominent crime issues and accused Breed and other local politicians of failing to improve them.
Drug overdose deaths in the city are at an all-time high in San Francisco, with 620 in the first nine months of the year, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner – up from 540 for the same period in 2020.
Police data showed robbery was up more than 14 per cent compared to the start of the year, with 2,645 reports.
Motor vehicle theft, which Chino Yang also addresses, was also on the rise with 4,464 car jackings since January 1, an almost six per cent increase.
Yang’s diss track referenced some of San Francisco’s most prominent crime issues and accused Breed and other local politicians of failing to improve them
Chino Yang also uses the song to speak out about Asian hate by referencing several high profile instances of violence against Asians including the murders of two-year-old Jasper Wu and Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, and Yohannes ‘John’ Tewolde
Yang addressed the spiraling car thefts by paying homage to Scott McKenzie’s famous 1960s folk song ‘San Francisco’.
But he changed the lyrics about wearing flowers in your hair to ‘If you are going to San Francisco / Make sure to leave nothing in your car.’
At the start of his music video the rapper also revealed that his restaurant, Kung Food, was broken into seven times.
‘I ain’t got no choice but to record this diss track,’ he said.
The rest of his video was also layered with images of victims of violence against Asians in the Bay Area, with the rapper criticizing the soft-touch justice seen served several high profile victims of Asian hate.
Among those referenced are two-year-old Jasper Wu, who was shot and killed on the freeway, the death of Vicha Ratanapakdee, 84, and Yohannes ‘John’ Tewolde who was murdered at the Richmond Market.
San Francisco is in the grip of a homelessness crisis which officials tried to paper over during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade summit last month however within days of the event ending the chaotic scenes were back on streets
Other clips include a 91-year-old Asian man being shoved to the ground, 84-year-old Rongxin Liao being fly kicked while sat on her mobility aid and the bloodied face of Grandma Xie, who was caught on camera attempting to fight off her attacker.
His track was released a month after officials attempted to clean up the city during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade summit.
Authorities tried everything from clearing encampments to deploying ‘night ambassadors’ to keep vagrants out of the area.
The unprecedented measures were designed to present a clean and shiny image during the summit, the city’s biggest gathering of global leaders since 1945, and prevent the sorts of street specialties that have battered the city’s reputation.
But within days of the event concluding, the city lost its sheen and the familiar scenes of homeless encampments and drug use on the streets had returned.
Some of these vistas feature in the Chino Yang video, along with video and images of car jackings.
The rapper was born in China, but moved to San Francisco when he was a teenager. He has appeared on numerous Chinese talent shows and has more than 320,000 followers on Chinese social media app Weibo.
DailyMail.com contacted the mayor’s office for comment.